Kremlin says the Ukraine peace process has not stalled

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia did not think peace talks on Ukraine have stalled despite Donald Trump's remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Washington's resumption of some weapons to Ukraine.

Trump said on Tuesday that he was not happy with Putin and accused the Kremlin chief of throwing "a lot of bullshit". The United States is delivering artillery shells and mobile rocket artillery missiles to Ukraine, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

Asked by Reuters if the peace process on Ukraine was stalled due to Trump's remarks and the resumption of U.S. weapons deliveries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "No, I don't think so. You cannot say that."

Russia, Peskov said, was waiting for a signal from Kyiv on whether or not it would join a third round of talks, which first kicked off in May in Istanbul.

"We have repeatedly said that it would be preferable for us to achieve our goals through peaceful political and diplomatic means, but as long as this does not happen, a special military operation continues, and the reality on the ground is changing every day," Peskov said.

Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. The United States says over 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022.

Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly called for an end to the "bloodbath" of Ukraine, which his administration has cast as a proxy war between the United States and Russia.

Putin, whose forces control a fifth of Ukraine and are advancing, has stood firm on his conditions for ending the war, despite public and private pressure from Trump and repeated warnings from European powers.

In June 2024, Putin said Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entire territory of the four Ukrainian regions Russia claims.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)